Noble and Ladies, we have several group email lists that serve as an important communications tool among the membership of Kena Shriners. The following are instructions to help you understand the use of the group email lists.

A group email list is an automated email system where the members on the group email list can send a message to a single address and the message will be sent to all email addresses that are listed in the database file of the group email list. You must be a member of the group email list in order to send a message to the members of the group email list.

The group email list is used in the following manner:

The group email list is for the Nobles of Kena Shriners to pass on information to the membership that would be of interest to the majority of the members on the group email list. Lengthy discussions or "statements of opinion on various subjects" ARE NOT allowed on the group email list. Jokes and trivia-style messages are also forbidden. Poems, and related "subject matter" are not appropriate because of the volume of message traffic that they generate. The goal for the group email list is to keep the message length and volume of messages to a minimum for the benefit of the many Nobles who receive their email notifications through their office or "business" communication systems.

Experience has shown that as the volume of messages increase, the membership starts to drop off. most members DO NOT like to receive a high volume of messages. When they do, they simply drop off the group email list to prevent the messages from being delivered to their inbox. Once a member drops off, they usually do not rejoin and this affects the effectiveness of the group email list. The group email list should be used to send out important information but the volume of messages should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Discussions on POLITICS or RELIGION are NOT allowed:

A condition of joining any of the group email lists is that you will agree to abide by the usage rules that have been established for the group email list. Anyone who fails, by their actions, to follow the rules, will have their email address removed from the group email list and will be prevented from rejoining at the discretion of the group email list owner.

A major point to remember. When you send a message to the list address, it is received by a large number of members. This is not a tiled meeting. You should treat your information or comments in the same manner as if you are speaking outside of a tiled meeting. Do not discuss anything that is not proper to be made known to a non-Shriner. Also, please remember the obligations you accepted when you became a Mason. It is not proper to speak badly about a Brother Master Mason or Shriner or of the actions of the officers of a Lodge or the Shrine in any form, more especially this form. Honor your Brothers and Nobles and the fraternity by your own proper actions.

The Nobles Group List is NOT for conversations but rather serves as an important communication tool for Shrine-related announcements. When conversations take place, members ask to be removed from the list because of the excessive emails, which then removes them from the best communications tool we have.

When you reply to an email message received from the Nobles Group List, please do not do a Reply-To-All. If the message requires a reply, then only the original sender needs to see it, the other Nobles do not need to see your reply. If you have a question or comment that is not applicable to the original sender, then your reply is best sent to the Kena Recorder.

Also, when you compose a new email to the Nobles Group List, please put the email address Nobles@Kena.org in the BCC: field of your email and not in the TO: or CC: fields. This will prevent those recipients who are in the habit of clicking the Reply-To-All button from sending their reply back to the list.